Ideal= EEs or Americauna?

[JenniferJoIN]

Does Ideal Poultry have true Americaunas or EEs?

 

[Rafter 7 Paint Horses]

They may have some Ameracauna, but I believe mostly EE.
I don't think any of the hatcheries have pure Ameracauna.
If they do, they will not be accepted colors. They don't separate their breeders by color.
If they did, you would be able to order by color.

Jean

 

[JenniferJoIN]

Thank you. I honestly don't care either way, just want to be informed!

 

[Windy Ridge]

This is what Ideal writes:

Ameraucanas, known as the "Easter Egg Breed", are a multicolored breed. They have beards, muffs and a normal tail with a tail head. They are often incorrectly called Araucanas, which have ear tuffs, are rumpless, and do not have a tail head which gives them a bunny tail appearance. Most of the chicks sold as Araucanas are really Ameraucanas, which are excellent, efficient producers of large eggs of many colors and shades including blue and green.

Ameraucanas lay ONLY blue eggs, and are NOT known as Easter Eggers. EEs are a mutt, mixed breed of chicken--very pretty. This is why the hatcheries frustrate me so much. See how they try to fool you?

A rep from Ideal is on here somewhere. I wish they would address this issue.

This is from the Ameraucana Breeder's Club FAQ:

What are the major differences between Ameraucana and Araucana chickens?

Both breeds lay eggs with shells colored various shades of blue, have pea combs, and should have red earlobes. Beyond that few similarities exist in specimens meeting the requirements of recognized poultry standards. Perhaps 99 percent of chickens sold as Araucanas (or Ameraucanas) by commercial hatcheries are actually mongrels (aka Easter Egg chickens), meeting the requirements of neither breed.

According to the American Poultry Association (APA), the Araucana breed must be rumpless (no tail) and have ear tufts. Ear tufts are clumps of feathers growing from small tabs of skin usually found at or near the region of the ear openings. This feature is unique in the U.S. to the Araucana breed. This trait is nearly always lethal to unhatched chicks when inherited from both parents. Tufted Araucanas, therefore, are always genetically impure, i.e., they don't breed true and will always produce a percentage of "clean-faced" offspring.

The Ameraucana breed, on the other hand, has a tail and sports muffs and beard in the facial area. These characteristics are true-breeding. Other requirements of both breeds may be found in the APA's Standard of Perfection and in the American Bantam Association's (ABA) Bantam Standard.


What are Easter Egg chickens?

The Ameraucana Breeders Club defines an Easter Egg chicken or Easter Egger as any chicken that possesses the blue egg gene, but doesn’t fully meet any breed descriptions as defined in the APA and/or ABA standards. Further, even if a bird meets an Ameraucana standard breed description, but doesn’t meet a variety description or breed true at least 50% of the time it is considered an Easter Egg chicken.​

 

[mom'sfolly]

I have two EEs for Ideal by way of the feed store. One looks like Ameracauna breed standard, but non standard color, the other is much smaller and no muffs or beard. The stardard looking one lays a bluish green egg, and the other lays a olive green egg. My standard looking lays very consistently, the other is a sneaky egg hider who flys extremely well. Both are great birds, but not terribly friendly.

Karen

 

[pipermark]

I purchased EE'd from IDeal, I had 2 white ones that you would not have been ashamed to bring to a show, nice beards and muffs, good leg color, they wouldnt have won but you wouldn't be embarrassed. The other 10 looked like mutts with beards and green to slate blue legs

 

[hinkjc]

Windy...I'm just going to say..me too!

If hatcheries would step up and use the correct terminology, then customers would know what they are buying. It's as simple as that.

Jody